1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a transflective liquid crystal display device enabling both a reflective mode and a transmissive mode, and an electronic apparatus including the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A transflective liquid crystal display device combining a reflective display mode with a transmissive display mode consumes lower amounts of power and performs clear display regardless of ambient brightness by switching to either a reflective display mode or a transmissive display mode according to ambient brightness.
A related art transflective liquid crystal display device has a structure in which a liquid crystal layer is disposed between an upper substrate and a lower substrate each having a circular polarizer. It has a reflective film formed of metal, such as aluminum, on the inner side of the lower substrate, the film having a slit to transmit light. This reflective film functions as a transflective film. In such a liquid crystal display device, in the reflective display mode, ambient light incident from the side of the upper substrate passes through the liquid crystal layer, is reflected by the reflective film disposed on the inner side of the lower substrate, passes through the liquid crystal layer again, and then is output from the side of the upper substrate. In the transmissive display mode, light from the backlight is incident from the side of the lower substrate, passes through the liquid crystal layer from the slit formed in the reflective film, and then is output from the side of the upper substrate. Therefore, the area in which the slit of the reflective film is formed is a transmissive display area. The area in which the slit of the reflective film is not formed is a reflective display area.
With respect to such a transflective liquid crystal display device, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-31717 discloses a technique to enhance the brightness of display and to achieve display with high contrast and less dependence on the viewing angle in the transmissive display mode. In the technique, with respect to a circular polarizer disposed on the outer side of each substrate, an optical anisotropic element formed of a liquid crystal film in which a nematic hybrid alignment structure is fixed is used as a retardation plate.